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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24778432">the night we met</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel_red/pseuds/angel_red'>angel_red</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys - My Chemical Romance (Album), The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Comic)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Driving, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Party Poison (Danger Days), One Shot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 08:48:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,352</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24778432</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel_red/pseuds/angel_red</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>no matter how hard he tries, cherri cola can't get away from kobra kid.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Agent Cherri Cola &amp; Fun Ghoul &amp; Jet Star &amp; Kobra Kid &amp; Party Poison (Danger Days), Agent Cherri Cola &amp; Party Poison (Danger Days), Agent Cherri Cola/Kobra Kid (Danger Days), Fun Ghoul/Party Poison (Danger Days), Kobra Kid &amp; Party Poison (Danger Days)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the night we met</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>the title is in reference to the song "the night we met" by lord huron.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Cherri Cola didn’t have time for games.<br/>
So when the crackle of radio static interrupted his late-afternoon poetry-writing session, Cherri paused with his pencil between his teeth and waited for actual news to come through.<br/>
Suffice it to say that he almost snapped his pencil when the Kobra Kid’s staticky voice echoed through the room.<br/>
“Cherri? Y’there?”<br/>
Cherri considered not answering. Have him try that on for a change.<br/>
Kobra’s voice sounded vaguely panicky. “Cherri, c’mon. Stop ignorin’ me. Please.”<br/>
“Well, since you asked so nicely,” Cherri picked up the radio and placed it on his desk, atop his stack of scrapped poems. “What do you want, kid?”<br/>
Cherri could practically see Kobra hesitating to respond. “...I need a ride.”<br/>
“Forget it.”<br/>
“C’mon, Cherri, please? Me ‘n Party were out ‘n they collapsed ‘n I can’t fit them on my bike.” Kobra’s voice wavered in pitch, indicating he was close to tears.<br/>
Cherri sighed. “Why didn’t you just call Jet?”<br/>
“They’re out too - I can’t get ‘em. I don’t know where Ghoul is - Cherri, please. I didn’t know who else to call.”<br/>
Fuck. Cherri shrugged his jacket on. “Fine, I’m coming.”</p><p> </p><p>	Kobra Kid sat curled up on a graffitied bench outside one of the most prominent concert venues in the Zones, his eyes flashing like a cat’s in the dark. His red-haired sibling reclined on the ground in front of him, somehow sleeping through the thrum of sound that shook the ground, resonating from inside the building. It wasn’t unusual for the two to attend concerts and get in some kind of trouble, but Cherri Cola had never seen Kobra looking so… mellow after a concert. Usually he was full of adrenaline, his grin set firmly in place, dangling off of some poor motorbaby’s arm.<br/>
Cherri parked his truck on the side of the road, walking over to Kobra as slowly as he could.<br/>
“Hey,” Kobra pushed his glasses back on his head, a small smile fluttering across his face.<br/>
“Hey yourself,” Cherri let a smile slip through his defenses. “D’you want me to put them in the backseat?”<br/>
“That could work. If they wake up, don’t tell ‘em they passed out, ‘kay? Just say that the concert ended early or somethin’.”<br/>
“‘Kay,” Cherri knelt and slung Party Poison over his shoulder, wrinkling his nose at the smell of alcohol. He shouldered open the door to his truck and tossed the redhead unceremoniously inside.<br/>
Kobra danced over to the passenger seat, breathing in deeply when he got into Cherri’s truck. It always smelled just like him - like campfire smoke and artificial cherry flavoring.<br/>
Kobra rummaged through the glove compartment for a handful of Twizzlers as Cherri stuck the keys in the ignition, staring out at the road, refusing to look at the bleached-blonde crash queen beside him.<br/>
“Hey, can I ask you a question?” Kobra Kid’s words were garbled through a mouthful of licorice, and almost drowned out by the sound of the engine, but Cherri still understood everything he said.<br/>
“Yeah, sure,” he replied, lowering his foot onto the gas pedal.<br/>
“Why d’you hate me?”<br/>
“I don’t hate you,” Cherri glanced over at Kobra, startled.<br/>
Kobra rummaged for more Twizzlers underneath his seat. “Could’ve fooled me.”<br/>
“I don’t hate you. I don’t really want to be best friends with you, but -”<br/>
“Why not? I’m plenty likable.”<br/>
Cherri snorted. “Fuckable, more like.”<br/>
“Do you not like me ‘cause my hair looks so good?”<br/>
“No.”<br/>
“Is it ‘cause I’m cool enough to wear sunglasses inside?”<br/>
“No.”<br/>
“Is it ‘cause I have better taste in music than you?” Kobra wrinkled his nose at the stereo. “What even is this?”<br/>
“S’ the Talking Heads, which you would know, ‘f you ever bothered to talk about anythin’ but yourself.” Cherri glared straight ahead at the long gray stretch of asphalt before them, his knuckles turning white on the steering wheel.<br/>
“That’s why you don’t like me? Cause I’m an arrogant, self-serving bastard?” Kobra laughed. “Those’re my best qualities!”<br/>
Cherri chewed his bottom lip, determinedly not looking at Kobra. If they made eye contact, he wasn’t sure he would be able to say what he needed to say. “That’s one reason.”<br/>
“Give me another.” Kobra kicked his legs up on the dashboard, studying Cherri’s expression - his tightly wound jaw, his furrowed eyebrows, his eyes that refused to dance with their usual humor.<br/>
“Well, remember all those times you asked me out?”<br/>
“I seemed to be properly humiliated at the time, Cher.” Now it was Kobra’s turn to stare out the window, head spinning with thoughts.<br/>
“I had to say no maybe fifteen times before you finally gave up,” Cherri smiled, recalling the memory. “N’ you asked why, ‘n you remember what I said?”<br/>
Kobra’s voice was quiet. “‘I don’t need another crash queen disaster.’”<br/>
“Word,” Cherri nodded.<br/>
“What the fuck did that even mean, Cola?” Kobra sighed. “‘S far as I know, you hadn’t dated anyone in -”<br/>
“Two years,” Cherri cut in. “Cause I had my heart broke. By someone a whole fuckin’ lot like you, kid.”<br/>
Kobra Kid was silent. He studied Cherri Cola carefully, drinking in the features of the radio poet’s shadowed face like he was seeing him for the very first time.<br/>
“He had a temper, like you. He was a spectacular kisser,” Cherri inclined his head to the lanky crash queen in the shotgun seat, “like you. He got into too much trouble one night. Nobody was with him to stop it.” Cherri’s knuckles practically glowed white on the steering wheel. “He got ghosted. I wasn’t there. I learned ‘bout it right before Doc announced it.” A silent tear made his way down his face, unbidden. “I couldn’t stand for that to happen again. Sorry I was a bit of a dick to you.”<br/>
The truck was silent except for the hum of the engine and the quiet guitar of the song on the stereo. Kobra’s face was somehow more unreadable than usual.<br/>
“Aw, are we doin’ a trauma unpackin’? Why didn’tcha invite me?” Party Poison’s voice cut through the tension, the redhead leaning forward between the front seats, grinning.<br/>
“Seatbelt,” was Cherri Cola’s response.<br/>
“Fall into a ditch and stay there, fuckhead,” Kobra flipped off his beloved sibling.<br/>
Party fell back into the backseat, reclining on Cherri’s stack of fluffed white pillows he kept for the cats. “Well, don’t mind me. Carry on! ‘T was just gettin’ good.”<br/>
Hesitantly, Kobra began, “Cher, I’m real sorry.”<br/>
“S’ fine, kid. Don’t worry ‘bout me,” Cherri smiled, “I’m doin’ just fine, thank you very much.”<br/>
Neither of them said anything much more. Party Poison leaned forward and turned the volume of the radio up, snapping their fingers to the beat. “Ooh, I love this song!”<br/>
Kobra and Cherri exchanged a smile for a moment, then quickly returned staring out the windows. The moment was over, but they were perhaps a little bit more friendly to each other. </p><p>	“Sorry Party interrupted,” Kobra started. The two were standing outside the diner, having just finished pushing a half-conscious and giggling Poison onto Fun Ghoul, who groaned but carried Party to their bedroom, Party giving him racy compliments all the while.<br/>
“It was a good thing. ‘F they didn’t say anythin’, I mighta -” Cherri bit his lip. He practically glowed in the starlight, his blue eyes reflecting whole worlds against the sky.<br/>
“You mighta what?” Kobra grinned, evidently back to his usual self now that Party was okay.<br/>
“Shoved all my trauma on you. Sorry ‘bout that,” Cherri replied smoothly, tugging at his collar to hide the red blush that was creeping up his neck.<br/>
“Don’t apologize,” Kobra’s voice was a low hum. “S’ my fault. I didn’t know.”<br/>
“You should never apologize for not knowin’ somethin’. I shoulda told you before when you asked me out. Then we coulda avoided all this.”<br/>
“We coulda,” Kobra agreed. “Well, I’ll see you later then?”<br/>
“Later,” Cherri said, but hesitated. “Actually, d’you want to go for a drive? I read the stars are supposed to look real nice on top of the mountain.”<br/>
Kobra’s grin widened. “Thought you’d never ask.”</p>
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